Cars take on different look for 2013

Tuesday

Nov 27, 2012 at 4:31 AM

Now that the 2012 Sprint Cup season has been completed, there’s plenty of talk about the 2013 racing season that begins in just a few short months. When engines hit full bore at Daytona Beach in February 2013, NASCAR will feature a new look for its cars that should garner a great deal of interest.

BEN WHITE

Now that the 2012 Sprint Cup season has been completed, there’s plenty of talk about the 2013 racing season that begins in just a few short months. When engines hit full bore at Daytona Beach in February 2013, NASCAR will feature a new look for its cars that should garner a great deal of interest. Many of those changes seem to be designed to make the sport a little more fan friendly for those who are new to stock car racing. The changes might take some getting used for those who have followed NASCAR for many decades.NASCAR’s marketing team hopes the new look for the Sprint Cup Series cars will eliminate confusion about drivers and teams while giving sponsors more exposure. The biggest change will come with the driver's last name featured at the shaded area on the windshield. This move will remind fans as to which drivers are in each of the respective Chevrolets, Fords and Toyotas being campaigned among the 43 teams in each race. The driver’s name will also appear on both sides of the car’s roofline like before. Sponsor decals will not be permitted on the headlights and taillights. Instead, car numbers will be moved from the lights to the front and rear bumpers, leaving the headlight and taillight decals to look more like the real thing. The second biggest change comes with a single sponsor logo that will be permitted on the roof where the roof flaps are located.Also in 2013, team sponsor decals will be permitted to extend past the front edge of what’s known as the b-post-the area just above the rear section of the door panels. A new feature called "Step and Repeat" background patterns will be permitted on the top, hood, deck lids and sides of the cars. It’s much like a logo or image pattern seen on fabric that’s lightened but prominent as a background. Some teams still tape and paint their cars in standard fashion. Many use what’s called a body wrap made of vinyl that covers the entire car. Using such a system is much like one large decal that allows some pretty neat graphics to be incorporated, much like a photo on a highway billboard. Thankfully, the newly designed cars for 2013 look more like the cars on the showroom floor with much better defined body lines. During the past decade, the cars dubbed “The Car of Tomorrow” and “Car of Today” have been built very closely in detail but with strong emphasis on safety.The 2013 cars are once again state-of-the-art when it comes to driver protection. All three automakers have spent countless hours designing them over the past year in hopes of returning to the “Win on Sunday-Sell on Monday” marketing savvy of the 1960s. That’s something that the majority of race fans applaud. Due to the slightly smaller car, standard door numbers and top numbers will be reduced by 10 percent with the contingency decals being reduced to 26 square inches. Toyota and Ford have long since unveiled their Camrys and Fusions, while Chevrolet is set to unveil its choice of car on Thursday in Las Vegas during NASCAR Champion's Week. Dodge, the brand Brad Keselowski drove to his first-career Sprint Cup title for Penske Racing, will not return in 2013. Chevrolet will field its new SS sedan in Sprint Cup and will be a racing version of the new V-8 powered, rear-wheel-drive car. It is actually a 2014 model that will be available to the public in late 2013. Nearly two decades have passed since Chevrolet offered a rear-wheel drive street car for NASCAR approval.The Camaro SS will also debut in the Nationwide Series in 2013. The changes will go into effect starting with Speed Weeks next February. The graphics changes to the elite Sprint Cup machines are the biggest to the car’s appearance since NASCAR was formed in December of 1948.Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations, introduced the new graphics design at Homestead-Miami Speedway two weeks ago. "These changes are an extension of the unprecedented collaboration with the auto manufacturers on the 2013 car, great industry feedback and our focus on increasing fan affinity as part of NASCAR's Industry Action Plan," O’Donnell said.No doubt, the print media and television sports outlets will make quite a story out of the graphics changes. That’s exactly what NASCAR officials are hoping for.